This recipe is in anticipation of the tomato sandwiches I’ll be having now that my larger tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. The summer Tomato Sandwiches are some of the best sandwiches of the whole year…stay tuned for some recipes.

This is a simple recipe that makes quite a bit of mayonnaise, excellent for using in a Potato or Pasta Salad to replace the store-bought stuff. I like to use quite a bit of fresh basil and a touch of fresh garlic to give the old taste buds a good Summery poke in the chops. This is a great way to utilize some of that basil from the garden to help keep it from going to seed! If making this for Potato or Pasta Salad make the whole recipe, if making to dress sandwiches cut the recipe in half.

In a blender or food processor combine the basil, egg, minced garlic, lemon juice, salt & peppers. Blend until the mixture is very green and the basil is very well pureed. Combine the two oils, then with the motor running on low, very slowly drizzle in the oil mixture (if you add it too quickly the sauce will break), continue this until all of the oil is incorporated. Taste for seasoning.

Store in an airtight container, it will keep for up to one week but is best if used in a few days.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…the first meal I go to off of the plane when I get to New Orleans is a sloppy Roast Beef Po Boy, it simply says “home” to me. I just recently saw a facebook southern foodie friend go into Parasol’s for a Roast Beef and received a comment along the lines of “why did you go to the gulf coast for Roast beef?”

The answer, dear reader, is that it is the quintessential Po Boy and sandwich of New Orleans. It’s a neighborhood specialty that folks grew up on, sitting in a dark tavern or pub with the odor of stale beer omnipresent, music moaning from a tinny jukebox or half assed speaker system. To be honest, and probably no secret to anyone with eyes, the place is probably not that clean. The conversation in the room could come from anyone… bums, judges, good time charlies, tourists, lawyers, construction workers or a group of high school kids in for a bite after school.

A neighborhood restaurant.

Everyone’s welcome and everyone is there.

Maybe the reason I make that meal my first one is to step into some real local color.

Then again, maybe it’s just the sandwich.

When done right it’s loaded with fall apart Roast Beef, waves of gravy made ever more creamy by generous slatherings of Mayonnaise, the first bite makes the French Bread and the sandwich collapse, leaving you elbow deep in gravy with fringes of shredded lettuce and pieces of tomato and pickle hanging from your wrist.

Don’t worry, nobody’s looking…or I should say, nobody’s judging. It’s all part of the experience. Enjoy. Relax.

It seems these days there are two camps of Roast Beef Po Boy enthusiasts as these neighborhood joints are a dying breed. Parasol’s and Parkway. I’ll take them both, each a little different, each on the high side of what I think of as a Roast Beef Po Boy. Good bread, good gravy, fall apart meat, and good local color as company.

This is my humble nod to the Parkway Bakery & Tavern Roast Beef Po Boy, I’ve gathered a few secrets from this article:

I put my own spin on this recipe for those who aren’t close enough to grab one when the urge strikes. Be advised this is not highfalutin food. Don’t be shocked to see things like Kitchen Bouquet and Cream of Mushroom Soup, these are neighborhood recipes made by regular folks. Don’t judge as they don’t judge when you’re sliding off of the table from the gravy and blue plate mayo.

If you’ve had the pleasure of having a good Roast Beef Po Boy in New Orleans and are from elsewhere, this is the recipe for you. This along with my Parasol’s Roast Beef Po Boy Recipe are damned authentic and will scratch that itch for you….provided you can find the right bread.

A note on New Orleans French Bread:

This detail is of utmost importance, as the cooking of the beef, maybe even more so. The bread must be a bit larger than a traditional baguette with a crisp crust, and an almost cotton candy interior. Very hard to find outside of New Orleans, but in Michigan I have found a very sufficient substitute at Fresh Thyme markets. The French Bread there is almost a perfect substitute in my humble opinion, even though they’re a bit highfalutin, organic this and that.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a very hot dutch oven with a tight fitting lid. Sear the seasoned Roast until very brown on all sides. Remove the roast to a plate, reduce the heat to medium, add the onions, carrot, celery, garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves.

Deglaze the pan using the vegetables, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to remove all of the brown bits, the flavor.

Add the beef Stock, mushroom soup and kitchen bouquet. Bring to a boil, then add the roast back to the pan, ladle some of the liquid and vegetables over the roast, place the lid on and place into the preheated oven for 3 – 3 1/2 hours.

When the roast is fall apart tender, remove from the liquid and refrigerate until easy to slice, about one hour.

In the meantime, strain the gravy, pressing some of the vegatbles through the holes of the strainer. Strain the fat from the top. Return the gravy to the pot and keep on a low flame, I like to add a tsp of garlic powder, reduce until gravy consistency, season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper.

When the roast is quite cool, “slice” but it will be more like making it fall apart. Slice the meat with a very sharp knife across the grain. Add the meat back to the gravy and heat through, check the seasoning again, keep warm on a very low flame.

Slather mayonnaise on both sides of the toasted French Bread, put a generous helping of the Roast Beef mixture on the bottom half of the bun, followed by the tomatoes, then pickles, then the shredded lettuce. Put the lid on then slice in half. Serve with a cold beverage and a very large stack of napkins.

Congratulations Timmy on a well deserved mention of an excellent and authentic Creole & Cajun Food Blog! It’s not often we bloggers get mentioned in publication! Keep up the good work buddy! I hope one of these days our paths will cross and we will get to do some cooking together or maybe just sit down to a good meal!

Unlike Jacob’s Adouille, Wayne Jacob’s does not ship their products because that would mean that they would have to change the way that they produce their meats, that is, the way it has been produced there since 1950. Admirable.

I ordered a few appetizers to check out some of the fine Charcuterie work that David Rauch does in the back of the house, and I was super pleased that I got to go into the back and say hello to David and get a few photos of him at work! I also got a few shots of the cracklins that were cooling on the back counter before being bagged up!

I enjoy the Andouille that I produce (my Andouille Recipe) and I also enjoy the one at Jacob’s Andouille. But in my humble opinion, as Andouille goes, the product that David Rauch produces in LaPlace is by far the benchmark.

My annual tradition is to make a Turkey Bone Gumbo from the carcass and meat from the Thanksgiving Turkey, and use the leftover dressing in place of the rice! This is such an amazing and unique redoux of the flavors of Thanksgiving! Just try it. You will never ask what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers again!

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Daube was introduced to New Orleans by the French Creoles who brought the preparation from their native France, where there are many regional versions of the dish. The Creoles went a step further and created Daube Glace which is a jellied dish served cold for breakfast or brunch.

What makes this dish unique from an ordinary Pot Roast is the larding of the roast with seasoned salt pork which flavors the meat from the inside while it cooks. Be sure and do this the night before cooking!

I use a split pig’s foot in the preparation of Daube Creole for the gelatin and richness that it adds to the sauce, also important for making Daube Glace.

Season the larded roast very liberally with salt and black pepper and dust lightly all over with the flour. Heat the lard in a large Dutch Oven on high heat. When very hot, sear the larded roast on all sides until very brown. Remove the roast to a plate.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion, stirring well, making sure to get all of the brownings from the bottom of the pot. When the onion is nicely browned add the tomato paste. Cook for several minutes, browning the paste slightly. Add the sherry and bring to a boil over high heat to cook off the alcohol.

Add the stock, carrots, turnips, garlic, split pig’s foot, bay leaves and thyme. Bring to a boil, then return the roast to the pot, turn the heat down to a simmer.

When the roast is tender remove to a cutting board. Turn up the heat and reduce the sauce by half. Remove the pig’s foot, bay leaves, and thyme. Season to taste with salt, black pepper and cayenne. Add the chopped parsley.

Slice the roast in thin slices and cover generously with the sauce. Serve over Creole Boiled Rice or cooked pasta.

I had many great conversations with my late friend, Texas Chef Bill Moran about Warren Leruth, as we were both fascinated by the man. Bill was a food broker during the 60’s and had many meetings with Chef Leruth in his restaurant in Gretna during it’s heyday. He was enamored with Chef Leruth’s scientific precision with recipes. Bill taught me a lot and shared a wealth of incredible stories of his meals and dealings in New Orleans during that time. He & I were enamored with Warren LeRuth because:

After all, Chef Warren LeRuth:

*Invented Oyster and Artichoke Soup which has since become an icon soup in New Orleans
*Formulated the recipes for Popeye’s: Biscuits, Red Beans & Rice and Dirty Rice.
*He did R&D for: Outback Steakhouse, Boston Chicken, Brinker International, Burger King and many other restaurant chains.
*Created Leruth’s “Vanilla Bean Marinade” and “Melipone Mexican Vanilla”. He sold the formula to Ronald Reginald’s, thank God, because it is the best Vanilla on the market, in my humble opinion.
*Created the formula for the “Seven Seas Green Goddess Dressing”

Bill and I planned on doing a Great Chefs of New Orleans bio on Chef Warren LeRuth, as we did for Austin Leslie. We never got around to it.

I miss my friend Bill, I think of him all of the time. Every 4th of July I look for an email that says “Happy Firecracker!”. It never comes anymore. I miss our long drawn out trails of email messages about Roast Beef Po Boys, and how the higher the stack of napkins, the better the Po Boy. I miss his praise on all of my posts, he was my biggest supporter, my cheering squad, because he knew I was trying to preserve some of the old cooking ways.

I talked to Bill for the first time on the phone the day before he died in 2007. I was working on my Parasol’s Roast Beef Po Boy post when the call came in. I told him I was thinking of him, the napkins were piled high and I would save half for him. He liked that. I had no idea how ill he was. I cried when a mutual friend told me he died the next day. We never met in person. I miss you Bill. I’m gonna get that piece about Warren LeRuth done. I’m researching, I wish you could watch these videos! Oh, the culinary conversations we would have about the master at work!

I learn something fundamental every time I watch one of Chef Warren’s videos. There is always something that I thought I knew…but now I realize that I don’t know squat.